I Miss the Munsters :(

Y'know, used to, every Halloween, WGN would have an all-day long marathon of The Munsters, hosted by Alice Cooper... and that had become the only time of year you could actually see The Munsters, because now that TV Land no longer likes classic television, they don't play it anymore like they used to, and throughout the year no less.

Now, as of last year, WGN doesn't even do those Munster Marathons anymore, which really sucks; they just play Halloween episodes of their regular programming now.

I RULLY should have gotten The Munsters when the complete series came out on DVD a few years ago, but I couldn't afford it at the time.

Speaking of which, has anyone seen the promos for this new Munsters remake/rip-off Mockingbird Lane? Looks like something Mel Brooks would come up with once his career hits rock bottom.

NBC was going to make Mockingbird Lane into a TV series, but the pilot was declined for season pick-up so they burned it last Friday. You don't have to worry about it tarnishing the original series unless NBC has a very last minute change of heart.

Ah. Well yeah, I had seen the previews of it, and it honestly looked nothing like the original Munsters in any way, the characters didn't resemble the originals, it didn't even look like the Munster family, but rather, another freaky-deaky and kooky family that just happens to live on a street that's also called Mockingbird Ln.

Still though, the promos made it seem like a very poor Mel Brooks send up.

NBC was going to make Mockingbird Lane into a TV series, but the pilot was declined for season pick-up so they burned it last Friday. You don't have to worry about it tarnishing the original series unless NBC has a very last minute change of heart.

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The worst part is, it actually was good! The problem is the barely in name only-ness of the concept. They could have called it anything else in the world, and it still would have worked. Other than the name only connection to the Munsters, if you thought about it as something else, it was a pretty good concept for a show, and very much the product of its creator. It would have been perfect paired up with Grimm.

And yet, they greenlighted Revolution... J.J. Abrahms or not, Cracked pretty much handed its own butt to it.

The worst part is, it actually was good! The problem is the barely in name only-ness of the concept. They could have called it anything else in the world, and it still would have worked. Other than the name only connection to the Munsters, if you thought about it as something else, it was a pretty good concept for a show, and very much the product of its creator. It would have been perfect paired up with Grimm.

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I wonder if they thought the cast might have been too expensive to keep together, with Eddie Izzard and Portia DeRossi and Jerry O'Connell all having TV shows under their belt and enough name recognition to demand some money. Most of their new shows don't really rely on big name actors or have one "big" name, like Matthew Perry.

Eddie Izzard is a big star? I've always thought of him as more obscure than anything.

But... *sigh*, remember the good ol' days when movie stars were considered "too big", "too important", and "too expensive" to even consider doing television? Matter of fact, I remember that was the concerns of both Fred Gwyne and Al Lewis, that Yvonne De Carlo was too big a movie star to even think about doing a weekly sitcom.

And, of course, thanks to Street Gang, we all know the truth behind the Marilyn Munster Conspiracy *cough*JonStone*cough*

Ironically, Comfinicast FINALLY offers Me-TV, though I'm a little disappointed with their schedule... seems like the shows I enjoy either don't come on until the middle of the night, or on Saturdays only.

I wonder if they thought the cast might have been too expensive to keep together, with Eddie Izzard and Portia DeRossi and Jerry O'Connell all having TV shows under their belt and enough name recognition to demand some money. Most of their new shows don't really rely on big name actors or have one "big" name, like Matthew Perry.

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I dunno... giant mansion set, movie quality CGI effects... This is the same mind behind Pushing Daisies. A show that, while it got good ratings, they weren't good enough to warrant that huge budget. Even if this managed to be picked up, I'm sure they'd blame the budget and cancel the thing right away.

But they DID do a good job of shoving Animal Hospital down everyone's throats. Quite viciously, I might add.

Ironically, Comfinicast FINALLY offers Me-TV, though I'm a little disappointed with their schedule... seems like the shows I enjoy either don't come on until the middle of the night, or on Saturdays only.

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I really like Me-TV, but I HATE the fact that the Weekday and Saturday daytime line up is infested with Cowboy shows. They had Lavern and Shirley on Sundays, and then stopped. Also Bosom Buddies. There's all these great old sitcoms they could be airing, some at a reasonable hour. But then again, I'm glad Me-TV made a channel jump. The former channel that had it ran infomercials all morning and then at 10 PM. At least now I can watch Get Smart if I can stay awake until 1 AM on a Saturday (or rather, Sunday). Not to mention their embarrassment of a Saturday Morning line up. I was told they had He-Man and Gumby and stuff, only to find boring travel shows, career shows, and Green Screen Adventures.

They only aired this pilot because it was way too expensive to just toss aside. They considered filming extra footage and making it a telefilm. It really seems that the expense is the real reason this show was passed over. It wasn't by any means bad. They've picked up and aired worse (the Event. The show where "Da Alienz did it!" very creative).

This really would have worked on a cable channel. I kinda wish that someone would pick it up. But I'm sure they'd have to seriously cut the budget if that happened.

I really like Me-TV, but I HATE the fact that the Weekday and Saturday daytime line up is infested with Cowboy shows.

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TV Land was, and still is, NOTORIOUS for that: however, unlike having a little more variety to the line up like Me-TV, TV Land just keeps filling their lineup with just Gunsmoke and Bonanza (speaking of which, I do get a kick out of that episode where Hoss Cartwright is dressed up like the Easter Bunny, and "Uncle Leo" is one of the bad guys, lol).

I don't know, it's almost kind of like how you're always talking about daytime TV being infested with courtroom shows and such.

That's why it stinks. Cable companies bought up rights to sitcom reruns so they naught rerun them, daytime television IF it has a sitcom rerun will rerun it in the evening and ONLY current and semi-current shows. The oldest being Seinfeld, which is around 20 years old at this point. And when you finally get a channel that shows older stuff, there's such a lack of variety in the middle of the day. I love how Me_TV has the completely unlicensable Batman TV show on Saturdays, and a lot of their shows are great, just at hours I don't want to watch them. But the middle of the day? Completely identical cowboy shows. They added Hawaii 5-0 and Emergency, but even on Saturday Afternoons, it's all the same Cowboy shows.

There's a great library of classic shows out there. Why can't we see half of it unless we buy DVD's? And that's even if DVD's are available.

Bonus fail points for a retro network NOT trying to get a Retro Sat Am line up.

That's why I do invest in the DVDs, especially considering the episodes are not only in superior quality, but also, in most cases, uncut as well. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Green Acres (though MGM has left us hanging for seven years), M*A*S*H, Sanford and Son, I gots all of these. My mom has a bunch of uncut Andy Griffith tapes, and somehow, CBS doesn't seem to care that people are always posting full episodes of Hogan's Heroes on YouTube.

When it comes to DVD's, I mostly spend my money on animation. Live action movies too, but mostly animation. The only sitcoms I have on DVD are Third Rock from the Sun and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not that I wouldn't buy the whole of Get Smart if I had the cash. And I usually borrow the Mork and Mindy DVD's. But some sitcoms I like just enough to watch on television, and not to buy the sets of.

Plus, I hate how the ALF ones are syndicated cuts. Otherwise, I would have got them by now.

And I really should get the Munsters and Addams Family on DVD. I like Monster shows.

Well, I mean, that's the excuse they're giving for refusing to carry Boomerang... which really doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering they've carried Noggin (now Nick Jr., like we all predicted it would) all this time, and they never had any actual commercials, just breaks consisting of little segments and promos among other things.